ISSN 2039-2117 (online)
ISSN 2039-9340 (print)
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy
Vol 5 No 9
May 2014
The Relationship between Leader Emotional Intelligence and Employee Job Satisfaction
Hlanganipai Ngirande
University of Limpopo, Department of Business Management, School of Economics & law
Private Bag x1106. Sovenga, 0727. South Africa
Email address: hlanganipai.ngirande@ul.ac.za
Harry Tinashe Timothy
University of Fort Hare, Department of Industrial Psychology
Private Bag x1314, Alice, 5200. South Africa
Email address: harrytinashe@live.com
Doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p69
Abstract
The concepts of Emotional intelligence and employee Job satisfaction are of high interest in the modern work environment.
They serve as a competitive edge in personal and organizational life. However, there is little information known about the two
variables’ relationships especially in the South African electric power industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the
relationship between leader emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction. A quantitative research design was utilised.
The sample for this study consists of 92 randomly selected respondents from two strata (middle level organizational leaders
and lower level employees). A self-administered questionnaire was administered to respondents; drawn from a selected Eskom
branch in South Africa. The data collected was analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Correlation statistics revealed statistically
significant relationship between leader emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction. The value of the findings of this
study lies in the explanatory utility of the identified relationships between leader emotional intelligence and employee job
satisfaction.
Keywords: leader, emotional intelligence, employee job satisfaction, South Africa.
1. Introduction and Background of the Study
For organizations to survive in today’s changing world they should maintain their competitive advantage through the use
of the whole workforce. In order for the change to take place, the employees, and the leaders should be adapted to the
environment, effective working and the continuous improvement of the processes and systems they use to achieve their
objectives (Goleman, 2000). According to Goleman (2000), great leaders are the ones that are able to direct their
subordinates and able to make the best of an individual to be visible and ignite his/her passion. However Coetzee and
Schreuder (2013) pointed out that for a person to be a good leader, he/she must be healthier, less depressed, and more
productive at work, and have better relationships with the subordinates. Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2002) also
stated that great leaders are the ones that work through their emotions.
Emotional intelligence has been identified as the most important element that leads to effective leadership. Mayer,
Salovey and Caruso (2008) defined emotional intelligence as the abilities to recognize and regulate the emotions one has
and those of others, and with that information be in a position to make use of the emotions to direct one’s thinking and
actions. Therefore a good knowledge about others emotions and an ability to manage them can help a person to gain
success and satisfaction in his/her work (Muhammad, 2009).
Employees who are under an emotionally intelligent superior are also likely to be emotionally stable and tend to be
more satisfied with their work. Jorfi and Jorfi (2011) defined the term job satisfaction as an employee’s affective reaction
to his job in terms of how much it satisfies his desired outcome. Job satisfaction is an integral component of
organizational climate and also an important element in management employee’s relationship (Coertzee & Schreuder,
2013). Given this, it is the positive emotional state that occurs when a person`s job seems to fulfil important job values
provided and when these values are compatible with one’s needs (Mehrotra, 2005).
The fact that emotional intelligence is an important factor in organizational effectiveness, a leader is supposed to
have greater emotional intelligence for him to be able to manage the organization more effectively. Although significant
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ISSN 2039-2117 (online)
ISSN 2039-9340 (print)
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy
Vol 5 No 9
May 2014
research has been conducted on leadership and employee job satisfaction, research on emotional intelligence is still
relatively thin and the relationship between the emotional intelligence of the leader and the job satisfaction of the
employee is less significant thus far.
2. Problem Statement
To understand how emotional intelligence of a leader affect the job satisfaction of an employee in the organization is very
important, however not much research has been done to find out what impact does leaders` emotional intelligence has on
employee job satisfaction. It is still relatively unknown in the extent to which emotional intelligence affects effective
leadership of an organisation (Palmer et al., 2001; Grunes, Gudmundsson & Irmer, 2013). Regardless of much interest in
the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership, they are of the opinion that not much research
has been conducted or published to support the relationship. In support of the argument, Ashkanasy and Daus (2002)
assert that “the connection between emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction is insufficient. Therefore this
study seeks to explore how the employees perceive the emotional intelligence of their leaders and how it affects their job
satisfaction.
3. Objectives of the Study
•
•
•
To explore the concept of emotional intelligence;
To investigate the impact of a leaders’ emotional intelligence on employee job satisfaction and ;
To give some recommendations to organisations on how they can put into practice emotional intelligence in
their leaders as a strategy for improving employee job satisfaction.
4. Research Hypothesis
This study postulated that:
• H0: There is no relationship between leader emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction.
• H1: There is a significant relationship between leader emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction.
5. Reviewing the Related Literature
5.1 Understanding the concept of Emotional Intelligence
In spite of the fact that the study of emotional intelligence is relatively novel, definitions and theorists seeking to explain
the concept of emotional intelligence are many. Salovey and Mayer, 1994) first proposed the concept of Emotional
Intelligence. They defined it as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’
feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.” On
the other hand, George (2000) pointed out that emotional intelligence is the ability, capacity, skill or in the case of the trait
EI model, a self-perceived grand ability to identify, assess, manage and control the emotions of one’s self, of others, and
of groups.
Although there are various definitions of EI, two distinct approached exist in understanding the nature of EL. The
ability approach mainly focuses on emotion-related cognitive ability to effectively join emotion and reasoning (Mayer &
Salovey, 1997). On the other hand, the trait approach, involves emotions-related behavioural dispositions and selfperceived abilities (Bar-On, 1997). Psychological studies have shown that understanding and controlling emotions play
an important role in gratifying one’s life and work (Coettzee & Schreuder, 2013).
Emotions exist in a context; they are related to the situation, and one’s goals, needs and wants. According to
Brown, George-Curran and Smith (2003) the three main reasons why emotions are so vital in the work context are as
follows: “they play a role in career development, they control one’s actions and they motivate a person to act”.
Furthermore, emotions play a part in the decision making and the decisions may be related to career or the routine
decision making. Therefore people have to be aware of their emotions and of the people around before making decisions
that will affect them in the long run (Ashkanasy, Zebre & Hartel, 2002). According to Bar-On (2000) “people who are
emotionally and socially intelligent are able to understand and express themselves, to understand and relate well to
others, and successfully cope with the demands of daily life”.
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5.2 The concept of Job Satisfaction
The concept of job satisfaction is receiving increased consideration from the organisations nowadays, the reason being of
its importance in the organisational effectiveness. With that in mind, managers feel with honour responsible for the
maintenance of high levels of job satisfaction among the employees. Job satisfaction can be conceptualised as an
employee’s affective reaction to his job in terms of how much it satisfies his desired outcome (Jorfi & Jorfi, 2011). Many
organisations know that having a workforce that is highly satisfied with their work will contribute immensely towards the
survival and effectiveness of the organisation. The feelings and behaviour that people exhibit on their job is also
contributed by the nature of the environment outside the job (Hadebe, 2001).
Spector (2003) offered a different perspective about why people like or dislike their jobs. The antecedents of job
satisfaction he identified were environmental aspects, personality variable or a combination of these. Job related features
that impact on job satisfaction are the ones that make up the environmental aspects, for example, job characteristics, as
well as various aspects of the organisation. A number of significant personal and environmental factors were
distinguished by him such as work-family conflict, age, use of skills, occupational level, and job experience (Allen, Herst,
Bruck, & Sutton, 2000).
A work done by Terera and Ngirande (2014) revealed that training is positively associated with job satisfaction.
Coetzee and Schreuder (2013) also found promotion as a tool to raise satisfaction. Kabungaidze, Ngirande and
Mahlkatsana (2013) noted that job satisfaction is an attitude of an employee over a period of his job so the factors of
satisfaction and dissatisfaction changes over time. Also, research studies shows that job satisfaction has a negative
impact on employee turnover (Constance, Iris & Colleen, 2011).
5.3 Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction
In their study on emotional intelligence and Job satisfaction, (Abi & Jijo, 2012) found out that employees with high
emotional intelligence will have higher job satisfaction. This is because the employees with higher emotional intelligence
are able to develop strategies to overcome the possible consequences which may arise out of stress whereas those with
less emotional intelligence won’t be in a position to overcome stress situation. In addition, in a group setting employees
with higher EI will be able to influence the emotions of others in such a manner that, they will be able to boost their own
as well as their co-workers’ morale (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997).
A leader employee with high emotional intelligence is able to respond appropriately to
workplace stress and to the emotional behavior of his or her subordinates. These abilities are anticipated to greatly
enhance job satisfaction. Moreover, research has already shown that emotional intelligence leads to high job satisfaction,
long-term mental health, better outcomes in work groups and leadership qualities and organizational success
(Muhammad, 2009)
5.4 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
Organisational and individual success is determined by the levels of emotional intelligence of the people. What this
implies is that, when all the parties’, i.e. the organisation and individual, emotional intelligence is developed both parties
will benefit in the long run. In support to this, Langley (2000) pointed out that subordinates of the managers will be
engaged in the work with passion, and on the other hand, managers would be receptive and open to the needs of the
employees.
The investigation on the effectiveness of emotional intelligence to effective leadership is gaining a drive according
to many authors and researchers (Palmer, et al., 2001; Watkin, 2000). According to Abraham (2000), with regard to the
above, when a leader is emotionally intelligent, he/she will be more committed to the organisation. To further this idea
Goleman (2000) adds that when leaders are emotionally intelligent they would be better performers in the workplace.
In support of Goleman (2000) s’ study, Miller (1999) maintains that emotionally intelligent leaders bring great
success to an organisation. In addition, an emotionally intelligent leader, through the use of interpersonal relationships,
builds trust and teamwork in other employees, their decision making is enhanced by the use of their emotions and also
the functioning of the organisation is improved when leaders make use of their positive emotions (George, 2000).
When emotions are managed in a correct way, they can lead to successful outcomes. However, the failure of
leaders to control their own emotions, the quality of work, thinking and decision making process and the interaction with
others will result in employee dissatisfaction (Palmer, Jansen & Coetzee, 2006). Therefore for an organization to be
successful, it requires people who are in a better position to motivate their own actions and those of their subordinates
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(Palmer et al., 2006).
6. Research Methodology and Design
A quantitative research approach was used. The population of the study comprised of Eskom employees at a selected
Eastern Cape Province Eskom branch in South Africa. The total size of the population was 120 (N=120). Using the
RaoSoft sample size calculator, a minimum recommended sample size of 92 respondents was obtained.
In this study, the researchers utilized a probability sampling method, and more specifically stratified random
sampling, as respondents were selected according to whether they are leaders or lower level employees. A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect data from all the permanent employees obtained from the Human
Resource Department as the sampling frame.
6.1 Administering of the questionnaire
Permission was requested from the HR Director of the organization to give out the questionnaires. The questionnaires
were left with the HR officials for distribution. The anonymity and confidentiality of the information to be obtained from
questionnaires was stressed to the HR department and to the respondents through a cover letter. To facilitate a good
response rate, an agreement was made that the collection of data should take a period of three weeks.
7. Data Processing and Analysis
Analysis is the ordering and structuring of data to produce knowledge (Sharp, Peters & Howard, 2002). The returned
questionnaires were inspected to determine their level of acceptability. They were coded. The data was transferred to an
Excel sheet. A statistical computer package, Statistics Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0, was used to
process the results. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means and standard deviations) was used to describe the data in
summary form. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationships between the
variables, i.e. between emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction.
8. Results
8.1 Biographical information
Table 1: Biographical information in percentages (%)
Gender
Age
Level of Position
Educational qualification
Males
Females
67%
33%
>20 years
21-35 years
36-45 years
46-55 years
56 years and above
3.44%
44.83%
27.57%
15.52%
8.62%
Lower level position
Leadership position
58%
42%
Matric
Diploma
Undergraduate degree
Post graduate degree
25.86%
33.34%
27.59%
13.21%
This study was based on a random sample 92 full time employees of a selected Eskom branch in South Africa. As shown
in Table 1 above, Sixty seven percent of the participants were males. The majority of the participants (44.83%) were in
the age category 21-35 years. The results also showed that the majority, (58%) of the participants were lower level
employees and the remaining (42%) were in the leadership positions.
In terms of the educational levels of the respondents table 1 above showed that the majority of the respondents
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(35.34%) had a diploma. Respondents with matric certificates and bachelor’s degree were 25.86% and 27.59% of the
sample, respectively. Respondents with a postgraduate certificate (11.21%) constituted the lowest portion of the sample.
8.2 Summary Descriptive statistics
Table 2: Summary descriptive statistics
Age
Educational qualification
Position
Tenure
Emotional intelligence
Job satisfaction
Mean
3.10
2.21
2.47
2.45
4.313
4.1313
Standard. Deviation
.841
.701
.506
.677
.4895
.63546
Note: N=92.
Table 2 presents means, standard deviation of the variables (age, educational qualification, position, tenure, emotional
intelligence and job satisfaction) considered in this study. The study showed a gender distribution of 61 males and 31
females aged 21-35 years (M=3.10 years; SD=0.841). An average respondent had about a tenure of 6 years (M=2.45
years; SD=0.677) in the organization. The results also indicated a mean and standard deviation of (M=2.47; SD=0.506)
for employee position variable. This showed that 53 the participants occupied lower level positions while 39 occupied
leadership positions. The results also showed a mean score of 4.313 and a standard deviation of 0.4895 for Emotional
Intelligence and a mean score of 4.1313 with a standard deviation of 0.6355 for average job satisfaction respectively.
8.3 Inferential statistics (Hypothesis testing).
Person product moment correlations are presented in table 3 below. It must be recalled that the study hypothesized that
there is a relationship between emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction. Emotional intelligence and job
satisfaction with specific reference to (pay, promotion, coworker and supervision) showed a positive significant
relationship to job satisfaction (r=0.621; p<0.003). Given the above results, which indicated a significant relationship
between the independent variable (leader emotional intelligence) and the dependent variable (job satisfaction), the study
rejected the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. This means that an increase in leader emotional
intelligence will result in an increase in employee job satisfaction in an organization.
Table 3: Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Job satisfaction
Correlations
Leader Emotional Intelligence
Pearson Correlation
1
Leader Emotional Intelligence Sig. (2-tailed)
N
92
Pearson Correlation
.621**
.003
Employee Job Satisfaction
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
92
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Employee Job Satisfaction
.621**
.003
92
1
92
9. Discussion and Conclusion
The present study extends an emerging body of research on the links between emotional intelligence and employee job
satisfaction. The research results showed that the majority of the participants were males occupying lower level positions.
The results also indicated that most of the respondents had a diploma during the time of the study. The reason of having
the majority of the participants holding diplomas might be because of the nature of the job which is technical in nature.
Therefore most of the skills are acquired on the job rather than in a class/lecture.
Importantly, the results also showed a positive significant relationship between leader emotional intelligence and
employee job satisfaction. The findings of the correlation analysis imply that leader's level of greater emotional
intelligence may lead to higher employee job satisfaction. Leaders who are emotionally intelligent are likely to make good
decisions in the workplace which in turn will boost their subordinate’s job satisfaction.
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The research findings concur with Lopes, Grewall, Kadish, Gall and Salovey (2006)s` results which demonstrated
convincingly that emotional intelligence is an important personality-level predictor of job satisfaction. Furthermore,
previous studies have found a strong relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction (Palmer et al.,
2006).Therefore leaders should be very emotionally intelligent so as to keep their subordinate’s level of satisfaction high
and in turn, this will benefit the organization in meeting its short term and long term goals.
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